Scavenger Hunt Results 2010

At first the idea of tallying up the points for the 2nd Annual Foodie Photo Scavenger Hunt seemed tedious; but then, once I started doing it this morning, I found myself laughing out loud at some of the pictures and smiling at some of the captions. The best caption was the one at the end of Stephanie’s Scavenger Hunt: “Completely exhausted, really well-fed, and so full of great memories! This was one of the best weekends we’ve had in NY.”

It’s funny, when I made the list this year I didn’t take into account how delicious it actually was. But seeing the various pictures of people noshing on burgers at The Burger Joint and eating poutine at Mile End, I almost wished I’d done the Scavenger Hunt myself; maybe once I post this I will!

And now for the results. We’re going to go in order from lowest points to highest points, so if you’re eager to see the winners scroll to the end.

[Note: if you want to see any of the full Flickr spreads of these individual hunts, click the names (they’re hyperlinks) and they’ll take you to the Community Blog entries.]

First up we have BKGlutton who “set out to complete this task with many good intentions and then we just didn’t have enough time to squeeze everything in.”

At least she got to meet Doug of The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck who was a really good sport about the Scavenger Hunt, Tweeting out the fact that he wouldn’t be on duty this weekend. (Clearly BKGlutton caught him on Friday.)

Next up on the point scale is Danielle who overcame her fear of talking to strangers in order to tackle tasks such as “cutting the line at Shake Shack”:

Well done, Danielle!

I ran into Jose at the Union Square Greenmarket when I was strolling around with Deb from Smitten Kitchen; he seemed like a fierce competitor:

That’s him getting kissed by a stranger outside of Whole Foods. (He’s not the only one to kiss a stranger; one of our later contestants, Tyla, kissed a stranger on the lips!)

Dorit made a noble effort, eating a Hershey Bar inside a Jacques Torres:

But, alas, didn’t win enough points to reach the top.

Breanne entered for her second year in a row! She flexed her muscles outside of Flex Mussels:

And became a walking billboard for Canada outside Mile End:

Sadly, she didn’t make the Top 3 (but she did have some of the best pictures: definitely check them out!)

And now for the Top 3. That deserves some kind of heading…

THE TOP THREE

In 3rd place, the team that actually found me at Joe (for an additional 10 points)…

…and the team that seemed to have the most fun overall (don’t miss their Flickr photo album, it has a great commentary throughout: they ate everywhere they went!): Stephanie & Jerry.

Unfortunately, 3rd place doesn’t have a prize attached but I get the sense from your album that the hunt itself was its own prize. (At least I hope so.)

That’s her with five knives outside of Korin. And this is her kissing a stranger outside of Whole Foods:

That’s dedication! And she showed even more dedication when, after discovering that Mile End was closed, she bought poutine elsewhere and ate it at the counter just to get the points:

Congrats Tyla! You and a guest will receive two $250 general admission tickets to Tom Colicchio’s “Toast to the Children” event on May 18th.

And now, at last, the fiercest competitors of all. They won last year and this year they won again, defending their title. It’s Rachel & Mike:

Actually, that’s just Mike. Last year Rachel was the model, so this year they switched roles. And together, once again, they conquered New York City, scoring an unbelievable 470 points.

Mike ate a Kraft Single inside Murray’s Cheese:

He met a butcher at Dickson’s Farmstand:

And he held 10 fingerling potatoes on all of his fingers:

And so, as his reward, he and Rachel will get two $450 VIP tickets to the “Toast to the Children” event, where they’ll revisit all the chefs they saw last year when they won the first time around.

I’d like to thank everyone who participated this year; it boggles my mind that I can dream up a silly list like this and by clicking “post” send a bunch of strangers staggering around the city. I’d also like to thank all the NYC food purveyors I may have inconvenienced with this list: from Murray’s Cheese to Jacques Torres to The Big Gay Ice Cream Truck to Gorilla Coffee (where, apparently, no one thought it was funny that Hunters had to ask for a job application.)